In this article I going to cover the two do it yourself option to help you get out of debt once and for all.

DIY Debt Plan

First off, you may want to look into setting up your own debt plan.  To do this all you need to do is gather up all your debts and setup a spread sheet ranking your debts from the highest debt to the lowest debts balance.

Then start paying off you lowest debt first and add an extra $50 to $100 to that debt only and pay the minimum on the rest of your debts.  Then once the first debt is paid in full continue onto the next debt except this time roll up the $100 plus the payment you were paying on the last debt.

Doing this will speed you up to getting out of debt.  However their are two rules you must follow in order to make this plan run smoothly.  First, always pay your mortgage last and second when all your debts are paid off  save enough money back for a 6 month emergency fund.  This will help you from falling back into debt again.

DIY Debt Consolidation

The second option is to do your own do it yourself debt settlement plan.  This process is almost the same as the last.  To start grab all of your debts and line them up from highest balance to the lowest.

Then, call your creditor with highest balance first.  Explain to them you are having a tough time paying off your debts and would like to negotiate a deal.  A lot of times creditors may not be willing to cut the balance but may be able to cut the interest on your debt.

If times are tough anything is worth the shot.  From their move on to the next debt and so on.  A couple of things you should know as well is that this options works better when  you are in a financial hardship, if you only have a couple hundred dollars of debt on a credit card your creditors will probably be less likely to do anything for you.

My troubles all started when I got into a car accident about 2 years ago. My car was totaled and I had some pretty massive medical bills, but the worst part was that I was out of work for almost a full month.

Due to the mounting medical costs and big drop in income, I was unable to make my credit card payments in full for two months. This was the first time I had missed a payment on anything, and I had most of the accounts for ten years or more!

Of course, my creditors were not very sympathetic. I was charged late fees, and my interest rates were raised to ridiculously high rates! I had no idea what to do at this point.

As I went back to work and paid down my hospital bills, I would have been able to resume making my old credit card payments. But at this point, I owed late fees and past due balances, and my minimum payments skyrocketed! My creditors wanted hundreds of dollars each as a minimum payment to get caught back up!

It seemed pretty crazy to me that, even though my financial situation had returned to normal and I had been a good customer for several years, the creditors were so unwilling to work with me. I seriously started considering just ignoring the bills or even filing for bankruptcy!

Luckily, my wife pointed me towards an article called Debt Reduction Programs – Pros And Cons (this is not the actual article, but it is a more updated one). Fortunately, I learned more about my options.

After reading the article, I had a new sense of hope and the desperation had finally cleared my mind. I immediately jumped up, picked up the phone, and called up my credit card companies one by one.

I did not let the rude, unhappy customer service people deter me from my goal. I explained my situation and in some cases asked to speak to a supervisor. In the end, I got pretty much the results I was hoping for.

One of my creditors actually waived my late fees and dropped my interest rate to previous levels. I have to admit, I was shocked when I heard that news. 2 of my other creditors put me in a hardship plan, where my interest, fees, and payments were reduced for 6 months.

My final credit card company was a bit more difficult, but finally they agreed that if I made 3 straight payments of $150, they would drop my interest back down and consider me current on my account.

I was relieved from my stress and finally found relief from my debt!

The first thing that you need to do is to organize your debt.  Financial planning gurus have different takes on the way to organize your debt for the purposes of paying them off.  Some schools of thought use the snowball method, and organize the debts from smallest balance to highest balance.  That way, you’ll pay off actual debt sources quicker because you’re starting with the lowest balance items first.  This is thought to give you momentum to continue paying off debts.  The problem is though, if your highest balance card has the highest APR (or a higher one) then you’ll be accruing more and more finance charges since you aren’t tackling that one first.

That is why most experts recommend starting with the credit card or debt source that has the highest APR.  If one credit card has a 2.9% APR, one has a 14.99% APR, and one has a 25.99% APR, then definitely start with the 25.99% APR one.  That will allow you to eliminate the higher finance charges, and ultimately save more money that can be put towards paying off even more debt.

No matter which method you choose to erase debt with, you just need to choose one and put all of your focus and extra money into paying off that debt.